Almost a thousand years before the first book, the ancient Athenians were singing. Precursing literature on stage, they enthralled audiences with their choral sound and striking costuming (whether their masks and mummery can be compared to the audacious world of music today, is another matter). Despite being the most popular art form, music,particularly its most popular genre, pop, is not often considered in discussions of meaningful art where a form like literature would be.
Sparkling with youthful energy and forefronted largely by women, today’s pop music can easily be written off as vacuous, a revolving door of beauties whose smiles are as unsubstantial as their lyrics. Two artists, however, are pushing the boundary of lyrics and literature by reshaping a genre.
Chappell Roan and Melanie Martinez, two household names in pop music, will be performing shows in Dublin in September as part of their European tours. Both artists, while distinct in personal style, share a few similarities, namely, the ability to transcend the medium of music through their emotive lyrics and artistry, all while wearing ten-inch lashes.
Chappell Roan, who has recently exploded onto the scene, has become a viral sensation captivating and maintaining the attention of both fans and fellow singers alike. Roan’s attraction at first glance seems obvious; from her ‘camp’ costuming that references everything from the Renaissance to burlesque, to her addictive beats and bridges perfectly for the TikTok generation. It is her poignant lyrics, however, that make her artistry comparable to that of a writer.
Roan employs techniques like consonance in her song ‘Naked in Manhattan’. In “I’d love if you knew you were on my mind, constant like cicadas in the summertime”, the repetition of the consonant ‘c’ in this song creates a hissing sound which perforates through the song, replicating the haunting sound of the cicadas Roan remembers so well.
She also uses clever double entendres. In her chart topping song ‘HOT TO GO!’ she sings:“it’s all in my head but I want non-fiction”. Strong overarching metaphors are seen in her song ‘Red Wine Supernova’ where she describes how she is “choked up, face down, burnt out”.For Roan, these techniques enhance not only the musical quality but the poetic and deeply personal meanings behind her songs.
It is difficult to define something as old and broad as literature, so it must be simplified: at its base literature is written artistic expression. It is evident that art is not missing from Chappell Roan’s vocabulary, and neither is her ability to pertinently express bold things. Her lyrics, which embolden fans to live unapologetically regardless of sexuality or appearance, are a refreshing salve against our current self-conscious society. As all great books do, Chappell Roan has a cultivated theme, simultaneously hyper-feminine in its unabashed sexiness and genderless in its impartiality.
Like Chappell Roan, Melanie Martinez reclaims stereotypes of femininity n both her lyrics and artistry. Martinez began her career almost ten years before Chappell during a very different period in the music industry, subsequently her songs are less brazen. However, many could argue this is simply her style, melancholic and emotive, focusing on prevalent issues in the mid-two-thousands, like mental health.
One of her overarching themes is the idea of an adult child who is too aware of the traumatic events occurring around her. Her lyrics, such as “Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces”, espouse this theme clearly, while her master lyricism arguably makes her more of a poet than a singer-songwriter.
While not totally comparable in their stylistic expression, Chappell Roan and Melanie Martinez share an artistic ability to progress past the beats of their songs, connecting to their largely female audiences with lyrics more thematically conscious and well-written than many traditionally published books or poetry.
